35K Coats Given Out To The Homeless! How This Company is Making an Difference

Veronika Scott, CEO and Founder of Empowerment Plan, believed that during her childhood, they were set up for “failure”. Her family struggled with homelessness, mental health challenges and addiction.

After receiving a scholarship to attend College she was given a class assignment that would ultimately change her future.

The assignment was to design something that would fill “actual needs”.

Veronika came up with the idea of a coat that could turn into a sleeping bag to help the Homeless. While she was creating prototypes of the coat she went to different homeless shelters to talk with the people and get their feedback.

During one such visit, a homeless woman began yelling at her “We don’t need coats! We need jobs!” It was in that moment that Veronika “committed to hiring parents from shelters across Detroit to manufacture the coats in an effort to help families break that vicious cycle of poverty and become financially secure.”